Tonight, while roaming my deck, taking in the city lights and the sensation of the night, I wondered if I was adequately enjoying my life or if I was piling up tomorrows and finding empty yesterdays. I asked myself the question, “how does one become alive in the moment?” The answer came to me fairly quickly: laughter. When we laugh, we’re happy. When we’re happy, we make good memories. When we have good memories, life is complete.
I had another realization. Unable to fuel any laughter, I commenced another discussion of self and family evaluation with Teresa, pointing out all the things we were likely doing wrong and our shortcomings from our ultimate goals. This, of course, was depressing. Then I had an epiphany. In fact, I realized the very secret to life. The secret to life, ladies and gentlemen, is not trying to figure out the secret to life. When we try to dissect the best strategies toward ultimate fulfillment, we place ourselves against impossible ideals, inevitably dwelling on the negative, and bring everybody down. And I’m one who usually preaches idealism. But I’ve also learned from experience that sometimes, rather than trying to solve the problems around us, we could do well to turn off our analytical minds and merely accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, and not mess with mister in-between.